so tales of phantasia is obviously the best tales game

[aweigh]

i looked up some tales of zestiria gameplay videos and it looks atrocious. it looks like a horrible mmo with non-stop anime voices bleating. the combat looks like 20 million steps down from the simple fun yet somewhat complex side-combat in tales of phantasia and star ocean 1 and 2.

can someone knowledgable in the tales series list the ones that are 2.5D / side-view combat a la the early star oceans and tales of phantasia?

 

[Duraframe300]

i looked up some tales of zestiria gameplay videos and it looks atrocious. it looks like a horrible mmo with non-stop anime voices bleating. the combat looks like 20 million steps down from the simple fun yet somewhat complex side-combat in tales of phantasia and star ocean 1 and 2.

can someone knowledgable in the tales series list the ones that are 2.5D / side-view combat a la the early star oceans and tales of phantasia?

Tales of Phantasia
Tales of Destiny 1&2 (As in the actual 2nd game)
Tales of Eternia (Mah favourite, then Destiny, then Phantasia)
Tales of Rebirth (Considered best combat wise)
Tales of Legendia

 

[aweigh]

thanks man

 

[Rahdulan]

I hate to break this to you but Tales games aren't exactly the pinnacle of storytelling. Their main thing is the iterative combat system that got improved over the course of the series.

 

[Duraframe300]

I hate to break this to you but Tales games aren't exactly the pinnacle of storytelling. Their main thing is the iterative combat system that got improved over the course of the series.

?

He specifically asked about combat/gameplay to begin with.

 

[Rahdulan]

Yeah, I know. Just wanted to point it out.

 

[aweigh]

i don't play rpg's for the story. i'm an adult. /edginess

 

[Morality Games]

Tales is like Final Fantasy. Play one of the better titles and you've played them all.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I posted in another thread (of the latest game), I'm looking for a jrpg to play with a cool soundtrack and a good battle system. I like the realtime combat of Valkyrie Profile a lot, as well as that game's soundtrack. That game's wapanese-ness was also quite bearable. So, getting into the Tales series seems like a logical choice, however all of the games in the series that I've tried have animu levels through the roof and it's really too much for me. I've tried Abyss on PS2 and Zestiria on PC... they both take too long to get going and there's way too much KAWAII DESU.

Would you recommend Tales of Eternia for me? I don't give a shit about story, character development or any of that. I like to play jrpgs for the music and the battle sytems.

Edit:

Seems like just the ticket.

edit: absolutely necessary after playing the first few minutes:

 

[Max Stats]

The last Tales of I played was on Gamecube, the PC was some war orphan who had to move in with distant relatives and everyone in the starting town was a huge asshole towards him. Man that's a weird way to start the game. Never got far in that game, or most of them, only Phantasia on the GBA, and even that one I didn't finish. Too many games, too low attention span.

 

[Siveon]

The last Tales of I played was on Gamecube, the PC was some war orphan who had to move in with distant relatives and everyone in the starting town was a huge asshole towards him. Man that's a weird way to start the game. Never got far in that game, or most of them, only Phantasia on the GBA, and even that one I didn't finish. Too many games, too low attention span.

Ok? The game you played was probably Symphonia.

 

[Somberlain]

That was Symphonia 2, which is generally regarded as a bad game, as far as I know.

 

[Siveon]

That was Symphonia 2, which is generally regarded as a bad game, as far as I know.

Symphonia 2 wasn't on the GameCube, but the Wii.

 

[Somberlain]

Yes, but it has the "PC was some war orphan who had to move in with distant relatives and everyone in the starting town was a huge asshole towards him" thing. The other games don't.

 

[Siveon]

Yeah you're probably right. Close enough for memory anyway.

 

[Whisky]

I posted in another thread (of the latest game), I'm looking for a jrpg to play with a cool soundtrack and a good battle system. I like the realtime combat of Valkyrie Profile a lot, as well as that game's soundtrack. That game's wapanese-ness was also quite bearable. So, getting into the Tales series seems like a logical choice, however all of the games in the series that I've tried have animu levels through the roof and it's really too much for me. I've tried Abyss on PS2 and Zestiria on PC... they both take too long to get going and there's way too much KAWAII DESU.

Would you recommend Tales of Eternia for me? I don't give a shit about story, character development or any of that. I like to play jrpgs for the music and the battle sytems.

Edit:

Seems like just the ticket.

edit: absolutely necessary after playing the first few minutes:

"YOU BET!"

 

[Malpercio]

Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia are the best in the series.


The series kinda declined in recent times. It abandoned the world map for ugly ass repetitive fields, dungeon with puzzles are mostly gone and the sub-quests got far worse too.

Symphonia takes place in the same world as Phantasia and re-uses a lot of concept, so go with that.

 

[Machocruz]

Always thought Phantasia was one of the nicer looking 16 bit games. This series has not made a good transition, visually, to 3D. The character art is cancer now.

 

[Max Stats]

That was Symphonia 2, which is generally regarded as a bad game, as far as I know.

Symphonia 2 wasn't on the GameCube, but the Wii.

GameCube, Wii, same difference.:selfhate:

 

[Hyperion]

Great Deceiver Since you're a big Valkyrie Profile guy, this may interest you if you can stand the Vanillaware inspired graphics, and 2 / 2.5D view. Looks like they're aiming for a summer release. May as well keep an eye on it.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Thanks, looks alright but I've no intention of buying a ps4. Maybe if it gets ported to Steam desu ne.

 

[Gerrard]

There is nothing complex about combat in Phantasia, it has literally one of the most simplistic combat systems out of the whole series and filled with annoying shit like most "big" spells pausing the gameplay. Eternia was the first one that moved things forward.

 

[Damned Registrations]

annoying shit like most "big" spells pausing the gameplay.

Are there actually games in the series that don't do this? I generally avoid using spellcasters in these games for this very reason. Pretty sure Eternia was no exception. I think Destiny was the first one to introduce combos with the sacred flame arts on Stahn. I played the shit out of that game. I tried getting into Zestiria recently but it didn't really grab me. I don't like the rock paper scissors system, especially when it forces you to change modes to use, and having to check enemy attributes and try to remember which skills arbitrarily have snake slaying properties (which you might not even have equipped) or whatever felt dumb. I would like such a system in a turn based game, but it interrupted the gameplay too much having to pause the action that frequently and spamming the exact same skill over and over during a boss fight was boring as fuck. I prefer the older games where skills were used more based on positioning and how long they'd leave you open for or keep the boss locked up blocking them.

 

[Gerrard]

annoying shit like most "big" spells pausing the gameplay.

Are there actually games in the series that don't do this? I generally avoid using spellcasters in these games for this very reason. Pretty sure Eternia was no exception..

It varies between games. In the Destiny remake for example only the ultimate abilities will pause gameplay while even the highest level spells don't. In Eternia the game would pause when you cast but then resume when the spell effect was going, in ToP it's paused through the whole animation in most spells/summons.

 

[Emmanuel2]

annoying shit like most "big" spells pausing the gameplay.

Are there actually games in the series that don't do this? I generally avoid using spellcasters in these games for this very reason. Pretty sure Eternia was no exception. I think Destiny was the first one to introduce combos with the sacred flame arts on Stahn.

Spells in Nariki Dungeon X, Rebirth and in Destiny DC didn't pause the game IIRC, even the biggest ones. They don't even do that slight cast animation pause similar to Destiny 2 (not Eternia), and they'd only pause the game when using mystic artes but apparently that's a series standard now.